Swinging Swede

There have been some previous suggestions...

They came out on a regular CD in 1991, and then again in the Collector's Choice series in 1997. Sonny Clark's Sonny's Crib, Stanley Turrentine's Blue Hour and Hank Mobley's Straight No Filter had all come out before, although the Mobley had different configuration, the Turrentine had extra material, and the Clark was in stereo for the first time (if I remember correctly). So at least there was something new about those.

Yes, unless they are going to use this one: and a variation of this:

Yes, only 17 Blue Note tracks, but there are also 3 tracks from a 1957 Pacific Jazz session, that made up one half of an LP (the other half had Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers).

Yes, the session ended with an untitled Donaldson blues, which is listed as rejected. Once again one wonders: how bad can it really be?

And who can forget this classic?

Yes, it has been on CD both as a TOCJ (which I have myself) and a JRVG. I suppose there is a good chance that it will turn up again fairly soon in the ongoing TOCJ24 series, and it should also be a serious candidate for a "domestic" release. It's really odd that it hasn't been released on CD outside Japan yet.

Damn! It would have been interesting to hear his take on Bird and Diz though. Allegedly he spoke positively about Ornette Coleman.

!?

The original bird lady:

If only Classics gets back on track, we can expect this session to become available in the not too distant future. As it was recorded in 1955, it will enter the public domain next year (outside the U.S. that is). By the way, two more tracks were recorded at the same session. They were later released on a Verve album titled The Genius Of Lionel Hampton, which collected various Hampton 'leftover' tracks.

Kenny G always did seem to be such happy fellow. When I went to school I learnt that 'gay' means 'happy', 'merry'. It comes from French 'gai', which means the same thing. Jazz Kat certainly seems to be right: Don't know if he can switch it off, though.

Interesting. The Swedish "sedan" only refers to a specific point in time, just like in English (just as in English?). So perhaps English has it right after all! It's very common that a word in one's native language only corresponds to a word in a foreign language in certain instances and not in other, as in this case. I think it is particularly confusing when the words are related as they often are in the Germanic languages. The similarity often gives a false sense of security.

Interesting. That's exactly the same type of sound defect that was on a copy of Blakey's Three Blind Mice, Volume 1 I bought back in 1992. It also started strongly at the beginning of the disc and then gradually faded away over the first minutes. I exchanged it, and the replacement was fine, but that sound is still engrained in my brain (maybe from the shock!). I wonder what causes it? It seems to fluctuate with the volume level.

Here are three ideas for a Three Sounds Mosaic: 1. The Complete 1966-1972 Three Sounds Blue Note Studio Recordings OK, the 1972 album was titled Gene Harris Of The Three Sounds, but at least "Three Sounds" is in the title, and only after that album was the reference dropped completely, as the focus had shifted over to Gene Harris himself. Nothing of this has come out on CD (unlike the live sessions from the same period which have come out.) 2. The Complete Verve/Mercury/Limelight Three Sounds Recordings This set would contain the complete 1962-66 non-BN recordings, including the 35(!) unissued Mercury tracks that Tom Lord lists (if they actually exist). 3. A Mosaic Select that gathers the large number of unissued Blue Note tracks that are supposed to exist. This would be a set along the lines of the recent Andrew Hill Select in that it focuses on unissued recordings, and it would then also be natural to include the unissued Four Sounds demos. What do you think?

There is a recent thread about Classics on the Big Band Talk forum. Here is a worrying quote from someone with inside knowledge. "One of the label's owners has expressed his desire to keep the label going but are partnership owns the label and not all partners are of like mind. The partner who wants to keep the label going is, fortunately, the person behind the Classics R&B label and he is the sole owner of that label." I certainly hope it works out. I would hate for Charlie Barnet to end at 1940 and Woody Herman at 1941 to take just a couple of examples.

And that's actually a double error since it should have been "Concert Jazz Band"!

The Wayback Machine is a useful resource in these cases: Kenton Presents Mosaic discography

German Amazon is a useful resource in these matters; they indicate whether a release is copy-protected ("Kopiergeschützt"), and also have scans of backcovers: The upper part shows the copy protection info. If you see a copy in a shop, you should be able to see the copy protection logo on the front, and info about it on the back. So the short answer is that the European version of True Blue is "copy-protected" (a misleading term really), as are all European EMI releases since July 2003. But the good news is that the US EMI releases (including True Blue) still are in the real CD format. That's why many Europeans buy new EMI releases from the US instead. I can recommend CD Universe for getting US EMI releases. Excellent prices and service. As for where to read about Blue Note reissues ahead of time, board member alankin's Jazzmatazz site is an excellent resource.

That one is easy to answer. Brooklyn is part of New York, which reminds one of 9/11, and that combined with the tune title There Is The Bomb simply made that album too offensive to reissue, and thus we got 'Improvisers' again instead. But it doesn't really matter, because with tune titles like Manhattan Cry, Lunatic and Sparkle Plenty, 'Improvisers' will ultimately be cancelled for the very same reasons.

Aha, Sunni Clark - Dial S for Saddam ... didn't think of that! But at least we can look forward to the summer RVGs (except the Hancock). Or can we?

No, it isn't. One tune on it is called Triangle. Haven't you heard of the Sunni triangle, the most dangerous area in Iraq? And another tune is called Mimosa. Not only is that an Asian tree, but it also stands next to 'minaret' in the dictionary. So it would clearly be too offensive to release the Hancock album now. Oh, and welcome to the board!

I wonder if they're actually going to release all of these... Well, Feelin' The Spirit has the tune Joshua Fit De Battle Ob Jericho on it, and Jericho is a city in the Middle East, so the Grant Green clearly has to be cancelled. Speak Like A Child has a tune called Riot. There have been riots in Iraqi cities, so the Herbie Hancock can't be released either. But even worse is Night Dreamer which has a tune called Armageddon (gasp), as well as tunes called Black Nile and Oriental Folk Song. No Wayne Shorter either obviously. Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers. Hmm, Jazz Messengers sounds kind of like Jazz Crusaders, and we know what they think about crusaders in the Middle East. To be on the safe side it probably shouldn't be released either. The same goes for the Art Blakey. But at least we can look forward to the Sonny Clark RVG!

I think it's some gal posting over at that inferior AAJ board.